Lace | |
---|---|
Genre | Drama |
Based on |
Lace by Shirley Conran |
Screenplay by | Elliott Baker |
Story by | Shirley Conran |
Directed by | William Hale |
Starring |
Bess Armstrong Brooke Adams Arielle Dombasle Phoebe Cates |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language(s) | English |
No. of episodes | 2 |
Production | |
Location(s) | Granada, Andalucía, Spain |
Running time | approx. 225 minutes |
Production company(s) | Lorimar Productions |
Release | |
Original network | ABC |
Original release | February 26 | – February 27, 1984
Chronology | |
Followed by | Lace II (1985) |
Lace is an American television two-part miniseries, based on the novel of the same name by author Shirley Conran. The series aired on ABC on February 26–27, 1984. The plot concerns the search by sex symbol Lili (Phoebe Cates) for her natural mother, who surrendered her for adoption as a newborn. Lace was one of the highest-rated television movies of the 1983–84 television season.
Lili's line "Incidentally, which one of you bitches is my mother?", addressed to her three maternal candidates — Pagan Trelawney (Brooke Adams), Judy Hale (Bess Armstrong) and Maxine Pascal (Arielle Dombasle) — was named the best line in television history by TV Guide in its 1993 issue celebrating 40 years of television.
The story opens circa 1980 at an abandoned chateau in the Swiss Alps, once a prestigious boarding school, L'Hirondelle. Internationally famous film siren Lili (Phoebe Cates) travels from there to a private meeting with the elderly Hortense Boutin (Angela Lansbury), whom Lili knows was paying money on behalf of one of the school's students to a family which adopted the student's illegitimate child. Lili is the child, now grown up.
The story flashes back to 1960, introducing schoolgirls Pagan Trelowney (Brooke Adams), Judy Hale (Bess Armstrong), and Maxine Pascal (Arielle Dombasle). Each becomes entangled with a man – Pagan with Prince Abdullah of Sydon (Anthony Higgins), Judy with banker Nick Cliffe (Simon Chandler), and Maxine with ice hockey player Pierre Boursal (François Guétary). All three romances fail, but one of the women becomes pregnant. Knowing it means ruin for the unwed mother, the three make a pact to protect her identity. All three present themselves to the local doctor, Dr. Geneste (Anthony Quayle), and he agrees to assist in having the child adopted. When the doctor discovers the identity of the mother-to-be, he says, "Of the three of you, you are the one I least suspected." The child, Elizabeth Lace, is born on November 17, 1960. The mother's birth name is recorded as Lucinda Lace.